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LACLEDE 
FOUNDER 
ST. LOUIS 



OMPUMENTS OF 

HE MERCHANTS-LACLEDE NATIONAL BANK OF ST. LOUIS. 



"^f" N memory of the Founder of St. Louis ^ 
(jh landmarks — a street and a park — have been 
named, corporations have been titled, and 
celebrations have been held. But during the 146 
years of the existence of this community no monument 
has been reared to the merchant — Laclede. 

When the banking room of the Merchants- 
Laclede National Bank of St. Louis was remodeled, 
a place of honor was made above the entrance. By 
the unanimous vote of the directors, it was decided 
to put there the bust {in bronze) of Laclede, whose 
name has been borne by the institution nearly half a 
century. The commission has been executed by 
George Julian Zolnay. The time is deemed fitting 
to recall the Founder^ s personality and to present 
a concise narrative of the Founding, with the reasons 
why St. Louis may feel pride therein. 

The Merchants-Laclede National Bank 
* ' of St. Louis. 



jHowtird Mein. Lib. 
AUG t 191U 



LACLEDE 

THE FOUNDER OF ST. LOUIS 



By WALTER B. STEVENS 




HE founding of St. Louis was not an accident. 
Into it entered definite purpose and wise planning. 
Unerring decision and splendid courage were 
called into play. All of these together won in the 
face of international complication, of local chaos. 
A born leader of men, trained by widely varied experience, 
having reached the prime of his years, was the founder. 
In the light of succeeding events, with the generations fol- 
lowing his, Pierre Laclede has grown. Every scrap of 
information about him has become of increasing interest. 
There is no need to idealize, to romance. All truth estab- 
lished by research adds to the enchantment of his personality. 
Laclede came from the Valley of the Aspe, at the foot of 
the Pyrennees, very near the border between France and 
Spain. The chateau, still owned by a branch of the Laclede 
family, is in the village of Bedous. They were "de Lacledes." 
They had a crest. The founder of St. Louis dropped the 
"de." He was plain "M. Laclede" to all who came to live 
in his colony. A signet-ring he wore was the only sug- 
gestion of pride in birth. The estate at Bedous went to an 
elder brother who was "master of forests and streams" for 
a province, a position of importance. On the estate was a 
mill. The younger brother did not come to this country 
until he was thirty-one years old. He was well educated. 
He had acquired a practical knowledge of milling as well as 
of farming. He was versed in the civil engineering of a 
century and a half ago. When Pierre Laclede decided to 
seek fortune in New France, the family supplied him with 
sufficient capital to enter commercial life in New Orleans. 
Times were bad. The j'ear was 1755. An intercolonial war 
came on. The Indians in what are now Mississippi, Alabama 
and Georgia, inspired by the English, threatened the French 
settlements of Louisiana. Colonial troops were raised for 
a campaign. Laclede offered himself and was accepted. He 
was given a commission and placed upon the staff of Colonel 
Antoine Maxent, one of the foremost business men of New 
Orleans. In old records of 1755-60 the name of Laclede 
appears among those prominent in that community. 



^iiZ'^^s 



When the campaign was over and peace seemed assured, 
Maxent, Laclede, and several others who had volunteered, 
were given by the Governor-General the privilege of exclusive 
trade with the Indians on the Missouri and Upper Missis- 
sippi for a period of eight years. The founding of St. Louis 
followed. This concession was bestowed in 1762. Nearly an 
entire year was consumed in the elaborate preparation to take 
advantage of it. In large part the stock of goods for trading 
was imported. Family tradition has it that Laclede made a 
visit to his old home in France. One of the young men of 
Bedous returned to New Orleans with him and joined the 
expedition. He was Jean B. Ortes, a carpenter and cabinet 
maker. He built the first church at what is now Second and 
Walnut Streets. His descendants are people of standing and 
substance in this generation of St. Louisans. 

On the third day of August, 1763, Laclede with his boats, 
which Auguste Chouteau called "a considerable armament," 
left New Orleans. On the third of November, by dragging 
with the cordelle, a rope several hundred feet long, by poling 
in the shallows, by rowing, by the aid of a low sail when the 
wind was right, the expedition arrived at Ste. Genevieve. 
That was the only settlement in what is now Missouri. Six 
miles up the river, on the Illinois side, was Fort Chartres, 
the finest fortification of its time in America, built by the 
French at a cost of a million dollars. There Laclede was 
v/elcomed by officers who knew of his standing at New 
Orleans and there he found temporary storage for his cargoes. 
But there, also, he gathered the full import of the strange 
news which had followed him up the river. France had ceded 
to England, by treaty of peace, her possessions east of the 
Mississippi. Neyon de Villiers was commandant with head- 
quarters at Fort Chartres and with jurisdiction north, east 
and west. He had just received his orders from New Orleans 
to prepare for evacuation. He was calling in the garrisons 
from Vincennes on the Wabash, from Massaque on the Ohio, 
from Fort Pees or Peoria, on the Illinois. He was even 
withdrawing the recently established post on the Osage, 
although that was west of the territory ceded. Neyon de 
Villiers meant a clean sweep. He was strongly advising the 
habitants of the French villages from Kaskaskia to Cahokia 
to abandon their homes and to go to New Orleans with him, 
promising to secure to them grants of land. While Neyon de 
Villiers was courteous to Laclede, he made no concealment 
of his policy which was to take down the river with him all 
of the settlers he could persuade to go. He advised Laclede 
that the hospitality of Fort Chartres might be very brief 



certainly ending with the arrival of the English to take 
possession of the fort. And meantime the Indians, who had 
been allies of the French, were assembling with the avowed 
intention to prevent the English from taking possession of 
the fort. 

With this crisis confronting him, Laclede waited no longer 
than was necessary to store his goods. He set out to find a 
site for his colony. He did not give an hour's consideration 
to the discouraging advice of de Villiers. Acquaintance with 
the people was cultivated. Information about the region west 
of the river was sought. Laclede declared his purpose. He 
told officers and habitants that he was going to stay. He 
would found '"an establishment suitable to his commerce." 
Ste. Genevieve would not do. When he stopped there on 
the way up the river he did not find storage room sufficient 
for one-fourth of his cargoes. Furthermore, he rejected the 
location "because of its distance from the Missouri." 

In December, taking Auguste Chouteau with him, Laclede 
began the exploration for a site. He went as far north as 
the mouth of the Missouri. So long as he lived Auguste 
Chouteau remembered vividly that search. He wrote in his 
diary that Laclede, "after having examined all thoroughly, 
fixed upon the place where he wished to form his settlement." 
Where the Court House of St. Louis now stands the ground 
originally was seven or eight feet higher than it is now. 
The elevation was so marked that the spot was known to two 
or three generations of St. Louisans as "the Hill." To the 
westward stretched a rolling prairie in that day. Eastward it 
v/as possible to see through a forest, which was without 
underbrush, the water surface of the Mississippi. The 
immediate river front was a limestone cliff from thirty-five 
to fifty feet high. Between the edge of this low cliff and "the 
Hill" the ground rose in two terraces of not abrupt ascent. 
What Laclede said, as his vision comprehended the scene, 
Auguste Chouteau remembered. "He did not hesitate a 
moment to form there the establishment he proposed. 
Besides the beauty of the site, he found there all of the 
advantages to form a settlement which might become very 
considerable hereafter." 

And when Laclede had gone nearer the river, and had 
marked, at what is now the corner of Main and W^alnut 
streets, the exact spot for the house which was to be the 
headquarters, he said to the boy of thirteen: "You will com.e 
here as soon as navigation opens, and will cause this place to 
be cleared, in order to form a settlement after the plan that 
I will give you." 



Neyon de Villiers did not get away from Fort Chartres 
until summer. In the time between the selection of his site 
and the departure of the commandant, Laclede was very busy. 
Against the exodus he used his power of persuasion. He 
advised the habitants not to go down the river. He told them 
of the opportunities which the new settlement would offer. 
He gained the confidence of these people. He won. 
Habitants turned from the official head to the born leader. 
When, at length, Neyon de Villiers floated down the river, 
only the timorous and the weak went with him. The com- 
mandant was resentful. Yet such was the tact of Laclede 
that no open outbreak occurred. The founder carried on his 
campaign to win settlers for St. Louis up to the very day 
of the commandant's departure. He drew to him the strong 
and the courageous. 

There was more than the talk of the promoter to influence 
the habitants that spring of 1764. Laclede gave abundant 
evidence of the kind of founder he was. As early as the loth 
of February, he loaded at Fort Chartres a boat with tools 
and some goods for trade. He picked thirty men, "nearly all 
mechanics," most of them young and unmarried, the flower 
of those French villages on the east side. He put Auguste 
Chouteau in charge of "the first thirty," saying to him: 
"You will proceed and land at the place where we marked the 
trees. You will commence to have the place cleared. Build 
a large shed to contain the provisions and the tools and some 
small cabins to lodge the men. I give you two men on whom 
you can depend, who will aid you very much. I vnll rejoin 
you before long." 

At the end of the fifth day the first boat had been poled 
and dragged up the river sixty miles, to the mouth of the 
gully at the head of which were the marked trees. The next 
morning the building of St. Louis was begun. Laclede made 
two or three hurried trips to the site that spring, but he 
spent most of his time superintending the shipm.ent of the 
goods from Fort Chartres and telling his plans for the 
settlement. 

The commandant sailed away with his twenty-one boats. 
Only eighty of the habitants went with him. Many more 
than that number had decided to join Laclede. Some moved 
to the new settlement in the spring. Others waited to gather 
their crops. When the fall of 1764 came, houses of posts, 
without windows and doors, and in some cases without roofs, 
stood in the villages from Kaskaskia to Cahokia for the 
census of those who had moved to become first families of 
St. Louis. 

6 



Within five years after the founding, St. Louis had a popu- 
lation of 891. That was the number returned by the first 
Spanish census in 1769. Even earlier the rapid development 
of trade by Laclede with the Indians was used as an argument 
in the memorial which was sent from New Orleans to the 
King of France urging him to take back Louisiana from 
Spain. That trade was estimated at more than $60,000 a year. 

The plan which Laclede drew for his settlement is the 
basis of the present map of St. Louis. The founder laid out 
three streets following the curve of the river front. These 
are today Main, Second and Third streets; they agree with the 
lines of Laclede's map. In his planning the founder showed 
in one particular more foresight than those who came after 
him. He established a public square, or park, on the river 
front in the heart of his settlement. The Place d'Armes was 
the name he bestowed upon the reservation. Its boundaries 
were the river, Main, Walnut and Market streets, as named 
at present. The locality was not a steep slope from Main 
street to the water in those days. The river, when of good 
stage, swept along the base of a cliff or bluff of rock, about 
thirty-five feet high. The Place d'Armes was a little plateau 
with this bold front on the river. In the year 1908, the Civic 
League of St. Louis planned and proposed to the people of 
St. Louis a treatment of the river front which was almost 
an artificial reproduction of Laclede's Place d'Armes, as he 
tried to preserve it one hundred and forty-five years before. 
Utilitarian St. Louis, after the election of the first City 
Council, put a market house on the Place. When the French 
names of the streets gave way to English, Market street took 
its title from the practical use to which Laclede's square had 
been put. Then came the day when St. Louis, looking only 
westward, saw nothing beautiful in a river front. The Place 
d'Armes passed into private possession. Across the street 
from where Laclede located his stone house and his place of 
business, was built the Merchants' Exchange to become the 
city's trade center for many years, until the removal to the 
Chamber of Commerce on Third and Pine streets. 

The founder had the vision of the born engineer. His 
mind was comprehensive in its action. Time vindicated the 
wisdom of the choice. Laclede studied the shore line to the 
cliffs overlooking the Missouri. He examined the country 
back from the Mississippi front. He had no second choice. 
He did not waver or confer. Here was to be his settlement. 
Here was just what he had been looking for. 

In his experience below, Laclede had seen the danger from 
high water. He selected for St. Louis a site that would never 



overflow. And yet the elevation was not impossible of ascent 
on the river side or difficult of approach from any other 
direction. Down the river and up the river were bottom 
lands. Farther to the north and to the south were higher 
limestone bluffs. Back of them the country was more rugged. 
Laclede passed over the high bluffs and low lands. He came 
to the plateau which his vision told him was the fortunate 
medium of elevation above the water. With Auguste 
Chouteau beside him, the founder noted the prairies and the 
groves. Winter though it was, his agricultural training 
revealed to him the natural fertility of the soil. Laclede 
knew something of geology. He saw the outcroppings of 
limestone. He recognized the abundance of building material, 
stone and wood, at hand. To be sure, it was not for him to 
realize what the vast beds of underlying clays promised. The 
age of cement and concrete was in the future. In so far 
as a mind keenly observant, informed upon material condi- 
tions of the middle of the eighteenth century could fathom, 
Laclede knew he had found an ideal site. He looked no 
farther. He committed himself unreservedly. He marked 
the trees for his own house and business. He located them 
where for more than one hundred years was to be the center 
of the commerce of St. Louis. 

"A trading post" St. Louis has been called by most of the 
historians. A trading post was v/hat the syndicate of New 
Orleans merchants contemplated when they form.ed the 
company, and when Laclede started up the river with his 
"considerable armament." But when the flotilla reached Fort 
Chartres and the situation with respect to change of sover- 
eignty was revealed, Laclede began the active, aggressive 
planning for a permanent settlement, not a trading post. He 
laid out the plan of streets and blocks. He invited settlers. 
He verbally assigned them property the first summer of the 
existence of the community. Then came the establishment 
of government. Immediately thereafter was developed a land 
system, with permanent titles and property rights. This is 
not the history of a trading post. 

The platting of a townsite, the assigning of lots to set- 
tlers on condition of improvement, the giving of written 
titles — these were departures from trading post methods. 
St. Louis was of its own class. It began without the usual 
military garrison and Indian contingent. It had no land- 
holding aristocracy and tenantry. It was no haphazard 
assembling of squatters about a central point. It started 
with a site mapped. To every family which came to settle 
was given a lot and the title was confirmed in writing. The 



joiner, the miller, the blacksmith, the baker were among the 
first to secure homes "in fee simple." More than one element 
of Americanism entered into the founding, the government 
and the land system of St. Louis, before 1770. The battle of 
Lexington was later — in 1773. 

Not alone were the settlers and traders of the Illinois 
country in their recognition of Laclede's influence. When, 
in 1765, Captain St. Ange de Bellerive, who had been left by 
Neyon de Villiers, turned over Fort Chartres to Captain 
Stirling and the English, he marched his garrison of forty 
French soldiers to St. Louis and remained there. He lived 
in Laclede's house. He performed the duties of commandant. 
The news had come up the river that St. Louis was now in 
Spanish territory. In Lower Louisiana there was revolt. 
The right to self-government was proclaimed at New Orleans. 
Over St. Louis the flag of France still floated. Through those 
years of uncertainty and bloodshed at New Orleans, the set- 
tlement of Laclede passed without anything more than well 
controlled excitement. Laclede awaited the issue in Lower 
Louisiana. If Lafreniere and his compatriots won, Laclede 
and St. Ange would join in the organization of the republic. 
They had created the capital of Upper Louisiana. While the 
revolution below went on, Laclede was cultivating the fur 
trade. He was laying foundations for a greater St. Louis. 

St. Ange came to St. Louis in 1765. Just after the begin- 
ning of 1766 he began to govern. Until that time the habitants 
had held the locations which Laclede had assigned them for 
homes. They wanted titles, evidences on paper, of ownership. 
St. Ange added to his functions the issue of grants or titles. 
Among the first to take out these grants to the property 
occupied was Laclede. The founder showed the people his 
faith in the land system which he had devised. In making 
his allotments to newcomers, Laclede usually bestowed a 
quarter of a block. In some cases, which were exceptional, 
he gave half a block. In a very few instances the assignment 
covered an entire block. The deeds or grants which St. Ange 
issued to the holders to confirm the assignments made by 
Laclede were recorded in a book. The system stood the test 
of Spanish authority first and of American authority later. 
Laclede's distribution of land to settlers, confirmed in instru- 
ments of v/riting by St. Ange, remains today undisturbed, 
with all of the authority of government sustaining it. The 
livre terrien of St. Ange is the beginning of the realty records 
of St. Louis, 

The year came round which terminated the period of 
exclusive trading in the Missouri country by Maxent, Laclede 



& Company, if indeed that privilege was really in force after 
the cession by France to Spain. In 1770 arrived the Spanish 
Governor, Piernas, with a garrison to put into effect Spanish 
authority. Laclede met the new conditions readily. He had 
made St. Ange a member of his household. He now wel- 
comed the Spanish Governor and gave him headquarters in 
his house. A new flag went up in front of the stone house, 
the yellow between the red. But Laclede still continued to 
be the power behind the government. He still controlled the 
fur trade of the Missouri. The personality of the founder 
was greater than the flag. 

In 1774 St. Ange died. Perhaps the old soldier hadn't 
much to leave. His will was the expression of his confidence 
and admiration. He named Laclede as the executor of his 
will. 

In 1778 Laclede, coming up the river from New Orleans 
on the tedious three months' journey, was stricken. He died 
near the mouth of the Arkansas river. His body was buried 
at the foot of a tree. The next year an expedition was sent 
down to bring the body of the founder to St. Louis. The 
effort was useless. In the flood period the river had under- 
mined the bank. The body of Laclede and the tree which 
marked his grave had been carried away. 

Laclede had "piercing and expressive eyes," He had "an 
expansive brow" and "a large nose." He was "above the 
medium height." His complexion was "very dark." These 
are some of the physical characteristics which those who 
knew the founder in their youth remembered when they 
were old. 

In forming his conception of Laclede for the bust to be 
placed in the Merchants-Laclede National Bank of St. Louis, 
the sculptor, Zolnay, drew upon all of the historical material 
which was available. He made a study of the copy of the 
portrait which hangs in the Laclede chateau at Bedous. He 
took the description of the founder as those who knew 
Laclede between 1764 and 1778 gave it for record. The 
portrait, according to the family tradition, was painted by an 
artist at Bordeaux, on the occasion of Laclede's visit to his 
home in 1762. Laclede was then about thirty-eight years of 
age. The sixteen years which followed, with all of the 
responsibilities of the new community, brought lines of 
strength into the features. The sculptor has aimed to present 
the Laclede of the years when permanence had come to St. 
Louis, when the future growth and prosperity of the settle- 
ment was fully assured. 



Nowhere is there blemish of meanness or stain of dishonor 
in the story of the founding of St. Louis. One mistake of 
judgment, and only one, is chargeable against the founder. 
In the spring of 1765 the Ste. Genevieve traders ignored the 
exclusive grant to Laclede. They sent a boat, commanded 
by Joseph Calve, up the Mississippi, past St. Louis and into 
the Missouri, carrying goods to be traded to the Indians for 
furs. A posse from St. Louis followed and brought back 
the Ste. Genevieve outfit. This was done by the orders of 
Laclede. When the boat reached St. Louis the cargo was 
unloaded and stored. There was the mistake. John Duchurut 
and Louis Viviat, the Ste. Genevieve traders, protested to the 
superior council at New Orleans. The council concluded that 
confiscation of the goods was unjustifiable. Laclede was 
directed to pay to the Ste. Genevieve traders the value of the 
cargo, but no damages for the detention of the property or 
the loss of the trade to the Ste. Genevieve firm. The case 
was not concluded until 1767. Appraisers determined that the 
cargo was worth $1,297. If Laclede had turned back the Ste. 
Genevieve boat without taking the goods, presumably he 
would have been within his rights. 

When the estate of Laclede was inventoried one item told 
the story of the founder's sacrifice of self-interest for the 
help of others. It was: 

"Notes of various parties irrecoverable, 27,891 livres." 

Laclede left the mill and the water power, which sold at 
auction for 2,000 livres. He left a farm on the grand prairie. 
This farm brought 750 livres or $150. Colonel Maxent, the 
New Orleans partner in the firm of Maxent, Laclede & Co. 
was the chief creditor of Laclede. He chose Auguste 
Chouteau to be the executor of Laclede's estate. Chouteau 
was Laclede's stepson. He had been the chief clerk of the 
firm of Maxent, Laclede & Co. More than this, he had been 
the trusted confidant of the founder from the beginning of the 
settlement. The selection of Auguste Chouteau showed two 
things — the complete confidence Colonel Maxent had in 
Laclede's family and the disposition to treat his heirs with 
liberality. In New Orleans as well as in St. Louis, the public 
spirit of Laclede was known. His invaluable services to St. 
Louis were recognized. The Governor-General took a per- 
sonal interest in the settlement of Laclede's affairs. He wrote 
from New Orleans to the Lieutenant-Governor at St. Louis 
asking him to interest himself: 

"Endeavor to have the heirs of Laclede satisfied as far as 
possible in regard to what is due the deceased." 

11 



Chouteau, after a year, was able to pay Colonel Maxent 
2,625 livres and to deliver to him sundry notes, the faces of 
which were 38,523 livres. But this included 27,527 livres 
"irrecoverable," and 7,527 livres "which may be collected." 

Upon the memorandum submitted to him by Auguste 
Chouteau, Colonel Maxent wrote "from all of which I release 
said Chouteau from any responsibility, he having executed 
his commission." 

This was all there was to show for the fifteen years 
Laclede had devoted to the founding and upbuilding of St. 
Louis. He had secured to his wife and children a home on 
Main and Chestnut streets. To protect his partner. Colonel 
Maxent, from loss on account of the notes, bad and doubtful, 
which he was carrying, Laclede, the year before he died, 
conveyed to Colonel Maxent all of his interest in the block 
of ground and in the buildings thereon, bounded by Main, 
Second, Walnut and Market streets. His principal asset of 
value was the mill. Even that had not been a source of 
profit to him personally. In 1767 he had purchased the mill 
because it was not equipped to meet the needs of the com- 
munity. He had expended a great deal of money, increasing 
the water power and enlarging the capacity. With such public 
spirit had Laclede managed the mill for eleven years that it 
had cost him much more than he had made out of it. 

The founder of St. Louis did not amass wealth. He 
formed "a settlement v/hich might become hereafter one of 
the finest cities of America." With foresight which seems 
marvelous now, he located his settlement and planned it. He 
carried the community through the crisis of organization and 
established government. He drew to him strong men from 
half a dozen other settlements, much older and seemingly 
permanent. He distributed the lots without cost to the 
newcomers. He obtained for the holders formal confirmation 
of the holdings. He made St. Louis the capital of Upper 
Louisiana with a population nearly half as large as New 
Orleans. 

An eminent French engineer, Nicollet, came to St. Louis 
in 1836. He worked five or more years on an elaborate hydro- 
graphic survey of the region west of the Mississippi, including 
the Valley of the Missouri and the parts northward. Assigned 
to assist him was a young lieutenant of the army, Fremont, 
afterwards the Pathfinder. Returning with his notes and data, 
Nicollet took up his residence in Baltimore and prepared his 
report. He died before the manuscript went to the printer. 
The government published the report in 1843. 



While pursuing his scientific work Nicollet became deeply 
interested in the early history of St. Louis. He devoted time 
to his research. Auguste Chouteau had died only a few years 
before. Pierre Chouteau was still living. With him the 
engineer conversed frequently and at length about the founder 
and the founding of St. Louis. He avowed his intention to 
write in detail what he had learned. To his care was intrusted 
the diary which Auguste Chouteau had kept from the begin- 
ning of the settlement through more than forty years. Other 
papers relating to Laclede and the pioneer period of St, 
Louis were loaned to Nicollet. All of this historical material 
of priceless value was carried to Baltimore, but was never 
returned. It was destroyed by fire. 

When the War Department officials examined the papers 
left by Nicollet they found, with the hydrographic report a 
sketch of the founding of St. Louis, possibly the fi.rst chapter 
of what the author intended to v/rite. They incorporated this 
sketch in the public document devoted to the hydrographic 
survey. 

Referring to the origin of St. Louis in the grant "to a com- 
pany of merchants in New Orleans," Nicollet says: 
"M. Laclede, the principal projector of the company, and 
withal a man of great intelligence and enterprise, was placed 
in charge of the expedition." 

One historic fact which much impressed the French 
engineer, after he had traversed the Trans-Mississippi region 
from St. Louis northward, was the wisdom Laclede exercised 
in the selection of his site. This Nicollet dwelt upon. He 
had obtained from the documents loaned to him and from 
interviews with the early settlers still living a description of 
the site of St. Louis as it was when Laclede saw it first in 
December, 1763. 

"The slope of the hills on the river side," Nicollet wrote, 
"v/as covered by a growth of heavy timber overshadov^^ing an 
almost evergreen sward free from undergrowth. The lime- 
stone bluff rises to an elevation of about eighty feet over the 
usual rcession of the waters of the Mississippi and is crowned 
by an upland or plateau extending to the north and west, and 
presenting scarcely any limit to the foundation of a city 
entirely secure from the invasion of the river. At the time 
referred to, this plateau presented the aspect of a beautiful 
prairie, but already giving the promise of renewed luxurious 
vegetation in consequence of the dispersion of the larger 
animals of the chase and the annual fires being kept out of 
the country." 

13 



Nicollet continued his narrative: "It was on this spot 
that the prescient mind of M. Laclede foresaw and predicted 
the future importance of the town to which he gave the name 
of St. Louis and about which he discoursed a few days after- 
wards with so much enthusiasm in the presence of the officers 
at Fort Chartres. But winter had now set in (December), 
and the Mississippi was about to be closed by ice. M. Laclede 
could do no more than cut down trees and blaze others to 
indicate the place which he had selected. Returning after- 
ward to the fort where he spent the winter, he occupied 
himself in making every preparation for the establishment of 
the new colony." 

With practical tact Laclede treated a crisis before St. 
Louis was two months old. At the same time he established 
an important policy for the community. Auguste Chouteau 
and "the first thirty" had built the great shed for the tem- 
porary storage of the goods. They had put together cabins 
for themselves. They were assembling the rock and the 
timbers for Laclede's house which was to serve for head- 
quarters of the fur company. The Missouris arrived. There 
were 125 warriors and the complement of squaws and 
pappooses. No hostility was showm. On the other hand there 
was embarrassing friendliness. The Missouris announced 
that they would build a village and live beside the white men. 
They begged food. They helped themselves to tools. Some 
of the intending settlers who had come over from Cahokia 
to join the settlement showed alarm and began to move back 
to the east side. Auguste Chouteau sent word of the emer- 
gency to Laclede at Fort Chartres. Meanwhile he put the 
squaws to work for pay, digging the cellar for Laclede's 
house and carrying away the dirt The founder came quickly 
in response to Auguste Chouteau's call and with due formality 
went into council with the Missouris. The chiefs repeated 
their decision to become part of the settlement and to depend 
upon the white men for protection against their enemies, the 
Illinois nation. Laclede listended and promised an answer 
the next day. 

Auguste Chouteau remembered that diplomatic speech and 
wrote it into his diary. It was a speech which averted a 
crisis and which laid the foundation of an Indian policy of 
long and far-reaching advantage to St. Louis. Laclede called 
the chiefs together, as he had promised. He went over the 
reasons they had given for joining his settlement. He 
reminded them that they would be placing themselves within 
reach of their hereditary enemies, the Illinois nation. He 
pictured an awful fate which he, wdth the best of intentions 



could not avert, if they, the Missouris, came to Uve where 
they could be so easily attacked from the east side of the 
river. 

"I warn you, as a good father," he said, "that there are 
six or seven hundred warriors at Fort de Chartres, who are 
there to make war against the English — which occupies them 
fully at this moment, for they turn all of their attention below 
Fort de Chartres, from whence they expect the English — but 
if they learn you are here, beyond the least doubt they will 
come here to destroy you. See now, warriors, if it be not 
prudent on your part to leave here at once, rather than to 
remain to be massacred, your wives and your children to be 
torn to pieces and their limbs thrown to dogs and birds of 
prey. Recollect, I speak to you as a good father. Reflect 
well upon what I have told you and give me your answer 
this evening. I can not give you any longer time, for I must 
return to Fort de Chartres." 

That night the Missouris departed, going up the river of 
their name to their old home. Laclede sent to Cahokia and 
brought over corn to give them for food. He also distributed 
among them some powder, balls and cloth. The visit of the 
tribe had lasted fifteen days. By the judicious distribution of 
vermilion, awls and verdigris in small quantities among the 
women, Auguste Chouteau had nearly completed the digging 
of the cellar for the large stone house. 

Nicollet says the Missouris maintained the friendly rela- 
tions, coming to St. Louis every summer. "They came down 
in their canoes, bringing along with them their wigwams and 
locating themselves near St. Louis, their women aiding the 
colonists in their rural occupations and in building their 
houses. The Osages visited the place three or four times a 
year, but not in a body. After awhile all of the other north- 
western nations adopted the same policy. And even the 
Sacs and Foxes, after the destruction of the Illinois nation, 
having driven away the Peorias who were the last remnants 
of this nation, came to trade away their maple sugar, their 
pecans, etc." 

Auguste Chouteau maintained and fostered this St. Louis 
Indian policy which Laclede inaugurated. Nicollet, traversing 
the wilds in his survey work, found the family name "to this 
day" (1836-40), "after a lapse of seventy years, still a passport 
that commands safety and hospitality among all of the Indian 
nations of the United States, north and west." 

John Jacob Astor, sending his most trusted and efficient 
lieutenants to wrest the fur trade from St. Louis, was baffled 
by this well established relationship with the Indians and 

15 



decided it to be expedient to go into partnership vvifh the 
descendants of Laclede rather than to attempt competition. 

South of Pau, sixty miles, the last half by diligence, is the 
home of an old family of France, a member of which was the 
founder of St. Louis. The Laclede chateau is there today, 
not only in perfect preservation but occupied by descendants 
of Pierre Laclede's older brother. It is "The Chateau" with 
the entire population of Bedous. That Pierre Laclede crossed 
the ocean and established one of the great cities of America 
is a household tale in Bedous. At the Laclede chateau the 
memory of Pierre Laclede is preserved not merely in the 
portrait. An upper room is still known as Pierre Laclede's. 
It is occupied by the furniture which Pierre Laclede used. 
From the window, across the valley is pointed out the 
"Liguest domain." This was the inheritance of Pierre, the 
younger brother, coming to him from his mother's side of 
the house. And the family tradition is that Pierre Laclede 
turned the Liguest domain into cash to help finance the 
expedition which founded the present city of St. Louis. 
Upon the domain is a stone mill said to have been built in 
the time of the Moors. This mill was operated by Pierre 
Laclede before he came to New France. It was on the 
Liguest domain that the youth gained the practical knowl- 
edge of milling which he put to account in the creation of 
Chouteau pond and the great stone mill known to several 
generations of St. Louisans. The Valley of the Aspe is 
fertile in production and beautiful in scenery. Thirty miles 
south, through the Valley of Labadie, is the Spanish border. 
In the region of Bedous are thermal springs similar to some 
which, more accessible, have become famous bathing resorts 
in France. A railroad has been surveyed through this valley, 
where the founder of St. Louis was born and passed his 
boyhood and early manhood. If it is built it will shorten 
the distance between Paris and Madrid eight or ten hours. 
The Bedous traditions have it that after Laclede obtained 
his fur-trading concession from the French authorities at 
New Orleans, he returned to his old home in 1762, raised 
capital by parting with all he had there, sat for his portrait at 
Bordeaux, took with him several of the adventurous young 
men of the valley, and set sail for New Orleans to conduct 
the expedition up the Mississippi. 



MB 13- 



16 



JlJi 35 
OFFICERS 

W. H. LEE, President GEO. E. HOFFMAN, Cashier 

r^ n r-DAXTr-rc w,^^ o„,,. E. B. CLARE-AVERY, AssT. Cashier 

D. R. FRANCIS, Vice-Pres. j p beRGS, Asst. Cashier 

A. L. SHAPLEIGH, Vice- Pres. D. A. PHILLIPS, Asst. Cashier 



THE 

Merchants-Laclede National Bank 

OF ST. LOUIS 
DIRECTORS 



JUDSON S. BEMIS 

Treasurer Bemis Bro. Bag Co. 

GUS. A. Von BRECHT 

President The Brecht Co, 

CHARLES CLARK 

CHAS. A. COX 

President Cox & Gordon Packing Co. 

s. s. Delano 

Treasurer American Car & Foundry Co. 

D. R. FRANCIS 

Francis, Bro. & Co. 

ELIAS S. GATCH 

President Granby Mining & Smelting Co, 

O. L. GARRISON 

President Big Muddy Coal & Iron Co. 

C. F. GAUSS 

President Gauss-Langenberg Hat Co. 

C. D. GREGG 

President Evens-Howard Fire Brick Co. 

President C. D. Gregg Tea & Coffee Co. 

S. E. HOFFMAN 

E. R. HOYT 

President Hoyt Metal Co. 

w. h. lee 

President 

B. McKEEN 

General Manager Vandalia R. R. Co. 

JOHN J. O'FALLON 

O. H. PECKHAM 

President National Candy Co. 

DAVID RANKEN 

HENRY C. SCOTT 

President National Light and Improvement Co. 

C. R. SCUDDER 

Vice-President Sam'l Cupples Envelope Co. 

A. L. SHAPLEIGH 

Treasurer Norvell-Shapleigh Hardware Co. 

J. J. WERTHEIMER 

President Wertheimek-Swartz Shoe Co. 

C. VV. WHITELAW 
President Polar Wave Ice & Fuel Co. 









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